Sunday 19 September 2010

...to infinity and beyond

Iulia Hasdeu Castle, Campina Romania
One of the greatest mysteries in the entire country of Romania is the Castle of Julia Hasdeu, located in the town of Câmpina, 40 km north from Ploiesti. Julia Hasdeu died in 1888, at the age of 18, from Tuberculosis, and her tomb is in Belu cemetery, in Bucharest. Deeply affected by his daughter's death, her father, B.P. Hasdeu, started in 1893 to build a castle on a small piece of land in Câmpina.
The main entrance to the castle is a huge door made of stone, supposedly fixed on a diamond bearing. On the outside of this door is written the sign of Hasdeu's family and two texts: first is "pro fide and patria"(for God and country) and second is "e pour si move" ("nevertheless it moves") which encourages visitors to press this door of stone, which is easily opened and permits entrance to the castle. The door was sided by two stone thrones, on which there were carved Iulia’s main seven reincarnations, the twelve laws and the Pythagorean symbols (the pentagram and the seven circles). On each throne there was a woman sphinx, guardian of the entrance. Above the door there was the Eye of the World, and on the crenels one could read a date: July 2, the day when B.P. Hasdeu used to symbolically celebrate his two Iulias: his wife and his daughter.

B.P. Hasdeu claimed that his belated daughter provided the plans for building the castle during sessions of spiritualism (which took much of Hasdeu's imagination and time after Iulia's death). The building was completed in 1896. The castle is built based on the magic numbers 3 and 7, having, for example 3 towers, 3 underground rooms and steps formed of 7 steps each.

Julia was a very smart child, well versed in the French language and a good writer, even from a small age (about 4 years old) and her loss was a real disaster for her father who never accepted this fact. B.P. Hasdeu tried all his life to communicate with the spirit and soul of the dead Julia, to which end he called in a lot of specialist people to help him do so, and he also asked a lot of friends to help him on this way (spiritualism).
Parallel mirrors: with their help, all that get through there is infinitely re-created.

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